Implications of supernova remnant origin model of galactic cosmic rays on Gamma rays from young supernova remnants

Abstract

It is widely believe that galactic cosmic rays are originated in supernova remnants (SNRs) where they are accelerated by diffusive shock acceleration process at supernova blast waves driven by expanding SNRs. In recent theoretical developments of the diffusive shock acceleration theory in SNRs, protons are expected to accelerate in SNRs at least up to the knee energy. If SNRs are true generator of cosmic rays, they should accelerate not only protons but also heavier nuclei with right proportion and the maximum energy of heavier nuclei should be atomic mass (Z) times that of protons. In this work we investigate the implications of acceleration of heavier nuclei in SNRs on energetic gamma rays those are produced in hadronic interaction of cosmic rays with ambient matter. Our findings suggest that the energy conversion efficiency has to be nearly double for the mixed cosmic ray composition instead of pure protons to explain the observation and secondly the gamma ray flux above few tens of TeV would be significantly higher if cosmic rays particles can attain energies Z times of the knee energy in lieu of 200 TeV, as suggested earlier for non-amplified magnetic fields. The two stated maximum energy paradigm will be discriminated in future by the upcoming gamma ray experiments like Cherenkov Telescope array (CTA).

8 pages, 5 figures. To appear in Phys. Rev. D

References in corpus (7)

• Detection of the Characteristic Pion-Decay Signature in Supernova Remnants
• The Cassiopeia A Supernova was of Type IIB
• First detection of VHE gamma-rays from SN 1006 by H.E.S.S
• Study of Nonthermal Emission from SNR RX J1713.7-3946 with Suzaku
• Ankle-like Feature in the Energy Spectrum of Light Elements of Cosmic Rays Observed with KASCADE-Grande
• TeV gamma-rays and neutrinos from photo-disintegration of nuclei in Cygnus OB2
• Nuclear enhancement of the photon yield in cosmic ray interactions

Cited by in corpus (5)

• SNR G39.2-0.3, an Hadronic Cosmic Rays Accelerator
• Probing the origin of cosmic rays in Cygnus Cocoon using ultrahigh-energy gamma-ray and neutrino observations
• Interpreting correlated observations of cosmic rays and gamma-rays from Centaurus A with a proton blazar inspired model
• An interacting molecular cloud scenario for production of gamma-rays and neutrinos from MAGIC J1835-069, and MAGIC J1837-073
• Probing maximum energy of cosmic rays in SNR through gamma rays and neutrinos from the molecular clouds around SNR W28